Actress Melissa Gilbert is stepping down as head of the Screen Actors’ Guild after four years at the helm. In announcing her decision, Gilbert spoke of deep rifts within the union leadership, and warned future guild leaders that she will be “watching them like a hawk.”
Tag: 07.22.05
Avignon Takes A Dive
France’s world-renowned Avignon Festival is having a bad year, with critics calling it “purgatory” or worse, and patrons walking out of performances in droves. “The festival was crippled in 2003 after a strike by theatre workers, but returned with healthy audiences last year. Ticket sales for this year’s events had been strong.” One critic described this year’s festival as the worst in 37 years, and another wrote, “You think you’ve reached the last point in mediocrity, pretentiousness and confusion. But no. There is always something worse.”
So Bad, It Might Just Be Good
What in the name of all that is holy has happened to summer movies? How can there be 14 screens in one place, and not a single watchable film? It’s enough to drive a critic to drink, and the public has already cast its vote by staying away in droves. But is it just possible that this summer’s cauldron of Hollywood dreck might actually be bad enough to convince the major studios to start putting out a better product?
A Comedy Of Errors Nearly Becomes A Dublin Tragedy
“Ireland’s national theatre, founded 100 years ago by WB Yeats and Lady Augusta Gregory, narrowly avoided having to turn out the lights and declare insolvency this morning. The entire management board offered its resignation yesterday after a disastrous year in which it managed to lose almost €1m [$1.2 million] into a ‘black hole’ without even noticing. The Abbey has slipped €3.4m into the red and witnessed a battle of egos worthy of Oscar Wilde’s cruellest comedy. Now a report by independent financial consultants has accused the byzantine management structure of gross incompetence.”
Fixing Up The Met, One Agonizing Detail At A Time
New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art is winding up four years of renovation with a painstaking restoration of its intricate four-block-long facade. “Section by section, architects, engineers and craftsmen have been slowly and carefully repointing portions of the stone facade, cleaning and filling in cracks and repairing water damage.”
Another Preservation Dustup
London’s Commonwealth Institute, one of the UK’s leading buildings, has been placed on a protected list of historic structures by the country’s culture secretary, over the protests of the Institute’s trustees, who wanted to sell the building to raise money for education programs. “The pre-stressed concrete building in Holland Park, west London, was designed by the British architect Sir Robert Matthew, and was given a Grade II listing by English Heritage within 30 years of being opened by the Queen in 1962.”
Judge: No Tax Exemption for UK Orchestra
England’s Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra has lost a court case it had hoped would allow it to qualify for an exemption from the UK’s Value-Added Tax (VAT, similar to a U.S. sales tax). The court ruled that, because the orchestra has a paid executive on its board, it is not exempt, and the VAT should be applied to its annual income. The case is part of a continuing effort by British charities and nonprofits to gain exemption from the tax – a similar case brought by the London Zoo was successful in the European Court of Justice, which overruled several UK courts on the matter. The Bournemouth Symphony plans to appeal, and eventually to take its case to the European court, if necessary.
Levine In The Berkshires
The James Levine Era has begun at Tanglewood, which has implications for more than just the Boston Symphony and its fans. Tanglewood is also home to one of the world’s preeminent orchestral training programs for young musicians, a program traditionally overseen by the BSO music director. So far, the center’s administrators and observers have raved about the maestro’s effect on the program, but privately, many of the young musicians have been saying that Levine’s baton technique can be vague and indecipherable. Still, there’s no doubt that Levine is shaking up Tanglewood, and has taken to the role of head mentor.
Orchestras Discriminating Against Men? That’s A New One.
A 29-year-old violinist is suing the New York Philharmonic for employment discrimination after being was dismissed from the ensemble in 2004. Anton Polezhayev claims that he received strong performance reviews but was denied tenure anyway because the orchestra prefers female violinists. The Philharmonic has no official comment on the lawsuit, but orchestra musicians have called Polezhayev’s charges absurd, saying that “he didn’t get tenure because he wasn’t doing his job.”